One of my favorite scriptures is Jeremiah 29: 11. At such a time as this we need promises to hold on to and rest upon. When we look around and see tragedies and suffering, we are sometimes overwhelmed and need assurance from God that He has a plan, He is in control, and He loves us. Paul in 2 Timothy 1: 7 reminds us that God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. He also reminds us in verse 9 that God has saved us and called us with a holy calling—not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Wow! That should be encouraging to us!
Let’s take a closer look at this scripture and glean hope and purpose for us today. We read in Jeremiah 29 about the judgment that came on Israel in 586 BC and it seemed as if the plans that God had for the Jewish people were finished. The Promised Land was in ruins and God’s people were in exile. Jeremiah sent a letter to them and gave them instructions from God which are applicable to us today: seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captives: pray to the LORD for it, for in the peace thereof you will have peace: do not be deceived by false prophets. It was then that God gave this word to His fallen and broken people: “I know the plans I have for you, plans of peace and not of calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” After everything, after all their failures and sins, and after all their calamities, it must have been a beautiful thing for them to hear. Even though He should have been finished with them, He was not finished. His love was greater. The Hebrew word in the original translation of the word “plan” speaks of the careful, skillful, intricate weaving of a fabric. God is the Master Weaver, not only of the world but of the lives of His children. The plans He has for our life are not only good and beautiful, but intricately woven plans, already worked out—before the world began! He will take every thread of our life—every joy, every mistake, every failing, every victory, every defeat, every gain, every loss, every regret, every wound and every question—every thread—and will knit them all together carefully, skillfully, and meticulously to become a perfect tapestry of woven love.
In this world filled with random acts of violence, happenstance and all kinds of confusing and tangled things. It is like a woven bookmark that on one side is just a mass of tangled thread. But when you turn it over on the other side in beautiful embroidery is the message: “God is love” and He sees the overall plan for our life and from His Divine viewpoint He sees the beginning to the end. “When we look at life from one side, it doesn’t make sense at all. But when we look at it through Divine viewpoint, we can see that God has a plan. The purposes of God have not been derailed, and He continues to move history forward on the course He has set. Though the enemy rages on with increasing ferocity, we see God continues to work in the lives of His people to accomplish His Divine Tapestry and plan.” (Adrian Rogers)
In Jeremiah 29: 12-14, he gives us instructions so that we can realize God’s good plan to give us a future and a hope. “Call on Me, and pray to Me, and I will hear you. And seek Me and you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you says the LORD…” We cannot make our plans and ask God to bless them. We are to seek God earnestly, sincerely, with all our heart, seeking the will of God. If we are to see God’s greatest promises fulfilled in our lives, we must pray for God to grant us a clean heart and a right spirit within us. (Psalms 51:10) God always answers pray when it gives Him the greatest glory! God wants to make something beautiful of our lives! Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith and He is not finished—the best is yet to come! The words from this song by the Gaithers says it all!
Something beautiful, something good All my confusion He understood All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife But he made something beautiful of my life
If there ever were dreams That were lofty and noble They were my dreams at the start And hope for life's best were the hopes That I harbor down deep in my heart But my dreams turned to ashes And my castles all crumbled, my fortune turned to loss So I wrapped it all in the rags of life And laid it at the cross.